Interim men’s ice hockey coach Michael Bertoni was given a sweet Valentine’s Day present: his first victory as a head coach.

The Beacons 6 times in the first two periods on their way to a 6-1 victory over Castleton State at the Clark Athletic Center. UMB’s record stands at 3-20 for the season

The Beacons were coming off a tough game against Skidmore College, a 6-3 loss the previous night. But Castleton State is in its inaugural season as a varsity program, and was entering the game with a 0-16 record.

Junior Patrick Donlan had a tremendous weekend, scoring a pair of goals in both games. Senior Brian Sullivan picked up four points in the Castleton State game (1 goal, 3 assists).

The Beacons also had their power play working as 3 out of 11 opportunities were converted. UMB’s penalty killing units did the job as well, shutting out the Spartans on all 11 power play chances.

Freshman Steve Kelleher started off the scoring for UMB only 26 seconds into the game. Donlan scored the first of his two in the game a little more than 3 minutes later to double the Beacons’ lead. Matt Hopper tallied Castleton State’s only goal of the contest not long afterwards to cut the lead in half, but Jason Bastien then scored his first goal of the year, and the Beacons never looked back

Things became quite chippy in the third period. A total of 16 penalties were called. A minor scrap took place with only 34 seconds left in the contest, but cooler heads prevailed before anything regrettable happened.

UMB will wrap up the regular season this weekend with two road games, one at New England College and then one at Saint Anselm.